Blues players strolling back to St. Louis

ST. LOUIS (HockeyStL) – It’s beginning to get crowded on the ice at the St. Louis Mills as Blues players continue to arrive back to town and prepare for an abbreviated NHL season.

Kevin Shattenkirk, Ian Cole, Jaden Schwartz and Jeff Woywitka arrived to practice on Wednesday, according to Dan O’Neill of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Also reported was the absence of Jaroslav Halak who has been playing in Europe.

The shortended season is going to be a mad dash to the playoffs from the start which is rumored to happen on January 19. It’s expected to be a season with an abundance of games played on back-to-back nights with a hectic travel schedule. It will hopefully be the hockey fix that frustrated Blues fans will revel in.

An obvious area of concern will be rest, especially for the goaltenders. Last season Halak and Brian Elliott split time in between the pipes which worked out well for the netminders. It won’t come as a surprise if the team has a third goalie around during practices to take a load off Elliott and Halak.

An amateur goalie has been filling in during practices with Halak still away in Europe.